It's definitely an interesting debate as to which album is superior. It doesn't help that HoB has Wicked Games - kinda tilts the scales a bit :p

In general I feel like this album has a welcome boost in maturity. I think one of this guy's main problems is gonna be burnout. The glut of material is awesome, but if it gets too juvenile and "omg, I'm the czar of drugs and bishes," it's going to get kind of obnoxious in my opinion.

That said, I love the trio of smoother songs on here: Thursday, The Zone, and Gone. So chill.

I sincerely hope this grows on me! It feels eeeh to me right now, after hearing it 1 1/2 times maybe; the music just feels less interesting. i plan on listening to it along with reading the lyrics later tonight

Also, Abel should pull a Sufjan-ambition move on us and plan to make albums for each day of the week

i think you'll find with more listens that the production and flow of this album are actually better than house of balloons; what makes thursday less immediately striking is that tesfaye's vocals don't really take the center stage this time around. he doesn't sound quite as charismatic here, but i'm finding it easier and easier to get lost in the space in production.

the swells in the beginning of the birds part one sound really similar to the ones at the end of Thrice's paper tigers. i actually have not listened to h.o.b. yet but this sounds pretty rad so far... the instrumentation is very affecting